It's Okay
by Fafsernir
Summary: Zoro needed to end the fight quickly. He knew Sanji had lost, he knew Sanji was lying on the ground, and he really needed to finish that stupid fight to check on the man.


_Still for_ **P** **ume-now** _, her request was_ **"** **Just heavy angst ZoSan"** _so there you go_

 _Unbeta'd, I'm not a native speaker, and I'm no expert in scientific facts or anything and I'm not trying to be accurate, and certainly not to be close to reality (people can eat fruit that can make them become elastic, I mean at this point I'm not trying to be realistic, nope.) but just to write a short thing for a friend. I'm sorry if this is inaccurate/impossible and deeply annoys you. That said, any comment is highly appreciated._

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Zoro threw a look at the motionless body behind of him. Sanji was injured, badly. He was barely conscious and unable to stand up. Zoro saw him trying to straighten up but he looked away, because his enemy was taking advantages of this, and lost his grip on his katana. He gritted his teeth on the one in his mouth and managed to take back the katana, on the other side. Seeing there an opportunity for a counter-attack, he strongly pushed, and felt the blade meeting no resistance, cutting the skin in a clean straight line.

He didn't lose anytime and had already his back on the man when the lifeless body hit the ground. He let his weapons fall when he saw Sanji. He hadn't moved much, but he had an arm thrown over his face and Zoro could guess that he was crying. He didn't know why, but he just knew it. He sank on his knees next to him and stared open-mouthed at his ankle. It was not right. He could almost see the bone and it was in a bad state. _Not the legs_ , he thought, it was Sanji's weapons, they couldn't take that away from him...

Zoro looked up when Sanji moved, putting his left arm over his right hand, but Zoro didn't even glance at it, because he could see Sanji's face, and he really was crying. Which was unusual, unsettling, and so very wrong. He turned his face to the side but Zoro could still see his tears well enough.

"I told you to stay behind, shitty cook," Zoro half-smiled, but the heart wasn't in it.

"Shut up, marimo," Sanji coughed, closing his mouth before blood could escape, but it did anyway.

Zoro finally looked away, at his hands, and frowned.

"Show me that hand," he snapped, but Sanji didn't move.

When Zoro took his left arm away, he froze. He let the arm go but Sanji didn't even try to do something with it, and it fell flat on his stomach. He clenched his fist on his suit, already ruined.

Zoro knew their enemy had been using fire, and that at some point Sanji had been burnt, but he hadn't seemed to be hurt that much. But now he could see his hand. Or what should have been his hand. It wasn't even red or bleeding or anything, it was just black. And he knew his hands, he knew them well enough to know that the index was way shorter than usual.

"It's- it's nothing Chopper can't fix," he stuttered, lying, and he knew he was lying, and Sanji knew he was lying, and it wasn't fine, it wasn't supposed to be like this, it was unfair, it couldn't be true...

Zoro pursed his lips and carefully touched Sanji's right arm, high enough so he wouldn't touch anything that had been burnt. The injured man turned his head a bit more, and Zoro had never felt so powerless. They had already been through so much, they had been stabbed, shot at, beaten to almost death, poisoned, separated, and even burnt. But there had always been hope, somehow. This time he knew there wasn't, and Sanji knew it.

"Why?" he managed to hiss between gritted teeth. Why had he protected him? Why had he taken the fire for him? Why hadn't he let him deal with it alone?

Sanji closed his eyes and smiled weakly. He opened his palm and let go a deep breath, composing himself.

"That's what nakamas do," he whispered, looking at Zoro in the eyes. He slowly raised his right hand to Zoro's face when he saw him crying. "Why are you crying? You're okay... It's okay," he smiled again, closing his eyes.

Zoro stared at him, eyes and mouth wide opened, tears still running down his cheeks, and he gasped when Sanji's hand finally touched him. A second later, the feeling was gone and Zoro looked down only to see ashes and dust instead of Sanji's hand.

He let his head fall against his chest and took Sanji's left hand on his, holding onto it for dear life.

"It's okay," he echoed Sanji's word. "You're going to be okay," he whispered, hiding the tears from his voice.

And he was lying again. Sanji was alive, and it was the most important thing for Zoro right now, but he would never be okay. His worst nightmare had just become true and he would never be able to use his right hand again, and nothing could ever be 'okay' again.


End file.
